Ubisoft on Watch Dogs delay -- "We had no choice"

Marketing executive Tony Key says delaying the open-world game six months was the "right thing to do."

In a new interview, Ubisoft marketing executive Tony Key recalls the publisher's decision to delay its high-profile open-world game Watch Dogs and explains what impact it had on the company. The delay caused financial hardship for Ubisoft, but it was the only possible course of action, Key says.

"This is not an easy decision to make for any company. On the day we announced that, I think our stock dropped 40 percent or some ridiculous number," Key told the [a]list daily. "We've recovered since because people are seeing the rest of our lineup and it turns out maybe it was a good idea."

"We had no choice. We knew it was the right thing to do, but it doesn't make it hurt any less" -- Ubisoft's Tony Key on the Watch Dogs delay

"We had no choice, despite the fact that it put us in a tough financial position in the short term. We're a long-term company, with a long-term vision, and Watch Dogs for us is a long-term play," he added. "We had no choice. We knew it was the right thing to do, but it doesn't make it hurt any less."

Key went on to say that games have their own unique sets of challenges, because they are a mix between technology and art. Compounding this is the fact that Watch Dogs is an all-new brand running on new technology--the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Ubisoft's other tentpole franchise, Assassin's Creed, has been annualized since 2009, so the publisher has experience bringing this product to market every fall. The same can't be said for Watch Dogs.

"The Assassin's Creed team has gotten so much experience now in working on a schedule that they've found that delicate balance of being able to put their heart and soul into the game and still making a schedule work," Key said. "But a new brand, as you've seen time and time again from publishers everywhere, it's very difficult to make that work."

Watch Dogs' delay came just one month before its then-release date of November 18. Delaying the title this late in the game led to numerous marketing challenges, Key said.

"The decision was made very late, and we were rolling along in a lot of areas on the marketing side. Any time a game slips, there are marketing inefficiencies," Key said. "We are still executing, for the most part, the plan that we had had. It was a lot of late nights and crazy reactions to putting everything on hold at the last minute. It's the least of our problems to put marketing on hold, compared to getting the game right, but it's a lot of work for a marketing team when something like that moves. You have to reallocate all your resources on a new schedule, you've got your retailers to deal with, who are already running marketing for your game in some cases. Slips like that are incredibly inefficient."

Had Watch Dogs met its original November 2013 date, the game's Xbox One and PS4 versions would have benefited from the buzz of the new consoles, Key said. But at the same time, the extra six months has also meant that more people have become aware of the game, and this is evidenced in the fact that preorders are up, Key said.

Watch Dogs launches May 27 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PS4, and PC. The Wii U version is coming sometime later. For more on Watch Dogs, be sure to read our previous coverage.

@pagemaster22193 DLCs are usually tied to the main story or a completely new plot altogether. Now, based on your logic, would you still buy the game if the story was released in episodes (games like sonic, back to the future, the walking dead, and so forth) that you had to purchase separately? You are not forced to buy them, but you are if the DLCs reveal some plot that the main game doesn't.

@shoemaker2004@pagemaster22193 Thing is...if it was put together after the game was shipped i wouldnt have a problem, this is just stuff that could easily fit on the disc and was probably finished way before deadline. Bullshit, everyone should (depending on the release state of the game plus decent reviews) buy the game but boycott the dlc.

@pagemaster22193 Unless it has crucial story content like games seem to be including, I don't advocate piracy unless the person literally has no means of affording it and no means of getting the money to afford it (then it doesn't matter because the company was never getting their money in the first place)

But defending the DLC bullshit that gets pulled isn't the right angle either.

Talking on piracy, I used to pirate the crap out of everything in sight because I had no way of affording games and all my money was going towards study and basic living, the games gave me a good outlet and because I was able to play the games then I kept on gaming as a hobby and now I buy as much as I want as an earning adult.

Piracy itself does very little damage to good games, CDPR keep proving this and really every time I come up against something like install number limits or oh hi games for windows live on my darksouls 1 copy that will soon stop me from being able to play the game without a crack... I do wonder why I bother.

@shoemaker2004 I have to agree with you... Pretty sick of games with DLC purposely not including an ending anymore. That used to be what games were all about getting the sweet ending, but now it never ends and no loose ends are ever really tied up because every single game has to be a yearly release that never ends. I totally agree that DLC is the worst thing to happen to gaming. It's all because those marketing jerks took over how gaming is presented so now there are in game shops and we have to be connected to the internet all the time, and we have to spend our money constantly after we already gave them 60$ for what? A game that has no story...??

I buy games that aren't always online, DLC crap, I don't even download the others. Why waste my time... it won't have an ending.

@HipHopBeats Hahaha true. Financial hardship...give me a fucking break, just more hype for the game. Will probably be worse than GTA V which also wasn't that good, first GTA i finished and never touched again

All of you saying that they didn't release it because of GTA five? Did you ever consider it might have been because of The Baatlefield 4 fiasco and the legal shitstorm EA was enduring because of it? Maybe because watch dogs really wasn't working right

It's probably because Rockstar threatened to sue Ubisoft because they saw something they didn't like. If this game comes out and it's not a carbon copy of GTA i'd be very surprised. And you know Rockstar's lawyers are just waiting to see what Ubisoft releases and how close it mirrors GTA. Press 'A' to hack!

@Vodoo I can't help but feel the same. I haven't cancelled my pre-order, but this better be pushing the above 90% on the reviews, or at least the high 80s for me to keep it. I'll never forget the fiasco surrounding Duke Nukem Forever.

I couldn't legally buy booze when that was announced, and when it finally did come out, I was in my mid-30s. Just thankful I didn't buy it full priced. Really wasn't worth the $3.00 that Best Buy was selling it for.

@R4gn4r0k We have no clue in which stage of development the DLC is on, so when some says they are working it all that could mean is that the DLC is in a conceptual phase of development, it does not mean that it is almost done and they won't bother putting it the game just to be assholes about it. Furthermore any team that starts working on DLC is usually part of the staff that has finished their part in the primary development for the main game and if they don't put them to work then they would have to lay them off.